This week: a refreshing and genuine semi-romance in Silver Spoon, understanding why Yura has always been alone and why she strains her friendships in Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu, why both the new and old characters are making Tamayura ~more aggressive~ much more fun, and frustration with the lack of character development in Gatchaman Crowds.

This week: an analogy between the war and the Crusades in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, the unpopulated, empty world of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, the damage and durability of the karuta cards in Chihayafuru 2, and thoughts on the criminalization of artists in Psycho-Pass.

Despite Nisemonogatari narrating the stories of Karen and Tsukihi Araragi, the presence of these characters, to date, has been woefully underwhelming. Although the current story concerns Karen’s unfortunate curse, her participation and involvement has been an absolute minimum and been reduced to a sideshow compared to the main event of the Araragi circus, the parade of girls from the former series. The majority of this episode continues this theme by examined Senjougahara’s revenge on Kaiki rather than Karen and her predicament. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn, if true, that Nisemonogatari has spent more time on Senjougahara’s fascination with Kaiki rather than all the combined time Karen and Tsukihi have been allotted. That’s the true travesty here.

Now that we’re well into our third week of the season, here are my first impressions of the remaining Spring shows. Yes, I’ve been that lazy busy but whatever. I may pick up some shows later should I hear a general consensus of positive reviews toward the show or if friends recommend them. But for right now, these are my final thoughts on the shows I tried this season.

Despite the most popular show of the winter season still incomplete, I’ll go ahead and write my season review for Winter 2011. It’s not like there’ll be any changes to the scores or how they rank when Puella Magi Madoka Magica finishes, so there’s no real point in waiting an undetermined amount of time to pretty much post the same thing, especially with the other nine shows already complete.

One of the things I’ve liked about Puella Magi Madoka Magica has been the whole mystery aspect. We’ve been following Madoka, an outsider to this isolated realm known only to Puella Magi, around for most of the series, and together, we’ve steadily been learning about these magical girls, their lives, and their morals. And through this process, we’ve seen great transformations in character.